Jealous wife jailed for stabbing husband's lover seven times, bashing husband with rock

Jealous wife jailed for stabbing husband’s lover seven times, bashing husband with rock

by | Nov 25, 2020 | Court | 0 comments

A woman who bashed her husband in the head with a rock and later stabbed his girlfriend seven times in the back, shoulder and head – including severing an artery – while she was sitting on a mattress with the man, and who was later sentenced to jail for assaulting her again, has had her latest jail sentence suspended after eight months.

Elvina Beasley, 22, of Ali Curung, was sentenced in the Northern Territory Supreme Court on November 13, after pleading guilty to one count of aggravated assault against her husband on August 23 last year – which carried a maximum penalty of five years in jail – and one count of unlawfully causing serious harm for the multiple stabbing later the same night – which carried a 14-year maximum penalty.

Justice Kelly said that on the night of the offences, Beasley and her husband, referred to as ZM, were drinking at a party in a Tennant Creek flat. Beasley turned up and started drinking too. She said ZM left soon after, and Beasley followed, walking behind him, before getting angry at him and picking up a rock and hitting him in the head four times, causing him to bleed.

“ZM ran away to a park. He saw a police car and told the police that you had hit him,” Justice Kelly said.

She said he was taken by ambulance to the Tennant Creek Hospital, where the cuts to his head were treated with staples and glue.

After being treated at the hospital, ZM walked to the Faye Lewis bar, and he stayed there with Beasley until closing.

About 12:20am on August 24, police arrested them for breaching a domestic violence order, and Beasley was also arrested for the aggravated assault.

ZM was later released after witnesses told police ZM and Beasley came into each other’s company to break up a fight between family members.

Justice Kelly said after he was released from custody, ZM was walking to his cousin’s house while meeting up with his friend or girlfriend, called SJ – who was also drunk – on the way, and they walked there together.

Beasley and SJ had known each other since childhood, the judge said.

She said Beasley was released about 2:20am with a domestic violence order, naming ZM as the protected person. Police took her to her cousin’s house but as soon as they left, she went to another house where ZM and SJ were asleep on a mattress.

“You yelled at SJ. You threatened her and told her to get up and fight,” Justice Kelly said. “She was too tired to get up, and so she stayed on the mattress, sitting down.

“You left the room and came back with a knife, and you stabbed SJ in the back seven times with the knife. ZM got up and chased you out of the house, and he and another man took SJ to the Tennant Creek Hospital. She had six cuts on her upper back, one cut on her left upper shoulder and one cut on her head.

Justice Kelly said the victim was flown to Alice Springs Hospital for surgery.

“Those wounds amounted to serious harm. There was a chance that she might have died of those injuries,” she said.

“In particular, the left shoulder. There was an artery in the left shoulder which was bleeding, and she could have bled to death from that if she had not been treated.”

Justice Kelly said Beasley left the unit and police could not find her that night, not arresting her until December 4.

She said that at the time Beasley committed the two offences, she had no criminal history.

Beasley was born in Ali Curung but was mostly raised by her maternal grandmother and went to primary school at Alekarenge School in Ali Curung, and high school up to Year 10 at St John’s College in Darwin.

Justice Kelly said she had worked between 2013 and 2018 in different jobs and as a carer for her mother and grandmother in Ali Curung from 2018 to 2020

She had also been receiving counselling while she was in prison for post-traumatic stress disorder caused by being beaten by ZM.

Justice Kelly said the five year marriage was happy until ZM stopped working 12 months ago, and started drinking more, and then started inflicting violence on Beasley.

He was sentenced to 15 months’ jail for assaulting her with a picket, causing a head wound that required staples to treat.

“It does seem that you started drinking too. And clearly, alcohol played a big part in leading you to commit these offences,” Justice Kelly said.

The judge said Beasley’s actions were serious offences, but she accepted there was considerable provocation when Beasley saw her husband in bed with SJ.

“That does not take away the criminal nature of your conduct,” she said. “But it does somewhat decrease your moral culpability.”

Justice Kelly said the sentence needed to send a strong message that the court and the community condemned that kind of violence, more so for discouraging others, less for dissuading Beasley, who she said did not have a history of violence, had a good history of employment, and had taken active steps towards rehabilitation – completing the Kunga Stopping Violence Program in prison, and being accepted into their 12-month program on release.

Justice Kelly said Beasley intended to get more counselling for her domestic violence trauma.

“You did not show immediate remorse. No doubt, you were very angry at the time,” she said. “And you were not remorseful for quite a while. In fact, you later assaulted SJ again.

“You pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and you received a prison sentence for that. However, I am satisfied that now, having had time to reflect, you are genuinely sorry for the injuries that you inflicted on her and for the assault on ZM.”

Justice Kelly sentenced her for nine months jail for the first offence and two years and three months for count two, with count one to be served partly concurrently, and with three months to be served cumulatively, for a total sentence of two and half years jail.

Because Beasley spent eight months on remand the rest of the sentence was suspended with a two year good behaviour period.

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